Cinnamon Apple Sauce Stink Moose.How to make scented ornaments.

by Karen on December 11, 2012

About 3 years ago I got a cold that turned into a really bad cold. That really bad cold turned into Sinusitis. That Sinusitis turned me into an angry, angry, robot person who couldn’t smell other people’s farts.

So there was good and bad to it all.

One of the symptoms of Sinusitis is the loss of smell and taste. I lost it all. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to cook when you can’t smell or taste anything? I made the worst canned chili sauce of my life that year. I had to drive around to all of my relative’s houses asking them to sample it for me so I knew if I needed to add any ingredients or spices. I have a hunch they were screwing with me because after 15 kilometres and 4 relatives I ended up with a batch of chili sauce that tasted something like a cross between burnt asparagus and gas station.

You have no idea how important the sense of smell is until you lose it. Sure you can’t smell anyone’s gut rot, abscess breath, but you can’t smell your own either. You can’t smell yourself at all. I went through 14 sticks of deoderant, 18 packs of gum and 142 cases of Tic Tacs that month.

As soon as I got my sense of smell back and started smelling everything in my path. Except crotches. I stayed away from those.

Now that Christmas is approaching, my nose is moving into high gear again. Everything I pick up I expect to be scented. Pine cones, candles, cookies. If they aren’t, I get angry.

Christmas isn’t just the season of joy. It’s the season of stink. Cinnamon, Vanilla, Pine, Burning Money … all the scents of Christmas.

So when my mother told me about something her quilting buddy told her about, I knew that I had to tell you. How’s that for an elegant sentence?

Cinnamon Apple Sauce scented ornaments. All it is is equal parts cinnamon and applesauce. That’s it. Roll it out, cut it with cookie cutters and let it dry.

You must have magical psychic powers or else you’re spying on me…. Everytime I find myself wondering about something, you turn around and write a post about it! The smelly moose are wonderful, but I really have to ask about the sinusitis. I haven’t been able to smell or taste since the first of November. I too had a cold, but only a small 3 day one, I feel fine and my sinuses feel clear. What in the world could a Dr. possibly do to make me smell again? Not that I’m complaining…I did loose 8 lbs over the Thanksgiving holiday after all. Only 40 more to go now!

Did you have sinus pain/stuffyness? Since I don’t have any sinus pressure or stuffyness, I’m sure they’d want to run a bunch of expensive tests and what-not. If only we had Canadian Health care then I wouldn’t hesitate, but I don’t want to hit my deductable in December only to have it start over again in January! Thanks for answering my question, and thanks for all the really inspiring and entertaining posts! Happy Holidays.
ps. Did you ever get a new fridge?

Yippeeee!!! I had forgotten all about making these, thanks for the reminder! When I used to teach school, this was a Christmas ritual for my first graders and me. I never did use glitter though…what a simple, yet amazing touch!! I know what’s on tomorrow’s agenda, right after I go to the dollar store and score some glitter. by the way…I notice your thrift store purchase in the window. score!!!!

This fall, I canned tons of applesauce, much too much applesauce… I don’t know why, I don’t even like it that much… I seem to have a recurring problem with quantities…Thank you so much for coming to the rescue. Now, at last I have a way to use part of that humongous applesauce stash!

no they last if you keep them in a air tight container and if they loose their scent, just add a couple drops of fragrant oils to bring it back or add a new scent to it. I’ve had mine for about 3 years now and they still smell cinnamony (is that a word, it is now) you can even put them in your car to make them smell all nice. I have one that I know is in there cause I can smell it, but can’t find it.

Will try this with my Grandkids. The thought of baking puts me over the edge unlike sista Marilyn who by the way makes punkie pie from scratch thanks to you Karen and they are really good by the way. This is simple and I don’t think I will liken it to real baking. We will see. Thanks Karen.

Happy Birthday Karen! Lucky girl on 12.12.12. Mine sadly is 13.12.12 (doesn’t have the same cache!)

I too had a sinus infection which was so severe that I developed polyps and lost my sense of smell for over 5 YEARS. It actually worked for me at the time as my boys loved to fart, play hockey, stash dirty dishes in their rooms and just generally smell.

I was placed on antibiotics for an unrelated reason and suddenly I could smell again.

Weird but there was one thing that I could always smell and that was Turkey!

Moose poop?! Oh dear me…. You wouldn’t be Karen if you didn’t throw a figurative wrench in the works. I went from the whole bake-a-cookie feeling to a regurgitation feeling. I no longer feel like baking cookies… my hips thank you, but I’m a grouch. Pshtt!

Hah, I just made 5 cups of cinnamon worth of these for my scouts. Guess how many I have left in my house? Yeah, about 4 1/2 cups of cinnamon worth. But my house smells wonderful! And I wish I had thought of the glitter in there. I just had the girls decorate them with glittery fabric paint.

This is a particularly timely post here in Minnesota, where I read an article in this morning’s paper about the inexplicable, exponential decline of the moose population. Perhaps we need a grass roots cinnamon moose bake sale to raise funds and awareness…

Those look amazing! I love the moose poop too, so daring… I think I will do sparkly stars as that is the cookie cutter I have right now.
Happy Birthday Karen, this is your year!!! (the whole year until your next birthday, not just until December 31st). Hope the Fella takes you out somewhere nice…

My daughter (her name is Karen too and her birthday is Dec. 25th) made these cinnamon/applesauce ornaments last year but in different shapes. She made a three foot tree from old grapevine found on her property down east, added little white lights and dried orange slices. It makes a beautiful tabletop feature in her living room at Christmas and the fragrance must be so very nice. Unfortunately, I can’t smell it ’cause I’m 1600 miles away. So, if it’s your birthday today Karen, ” Happy Birthday”! I love your creativity and I love moose, droppings and all.

Hahaha Karen soooo wish you were my next door neighbor,I would have been completely honest with you about your chili! MUUUUHAAAAAAHHHHHAAAAAA! (that’s my evil laugh BTW.)http://www.dawnajonesdesign.com/

past experience with ruined homemade ‘cookie’ style ornaments leads me to ask: do these come off the sheet easily?? – this is the perfect craft to share with my gransdaughter but just want to make sure how to get them off the cookie sheet in ONE piece. Thank you for this great idea!

Happy Birthday Karen! You have a sort of sucky b-day though. My real b-day is New Years Day, and a couple of years ago I moved it to April 15th. Should have done it way long ago! January 1 is too close to Christmas-everyone is visited out and worn out, and the weather in northeast Ohio is often bad then. So, I chose Tax Day-figured it would be easy to remember and not icy, most likely! Works great!
Your stinky moose idea is wonderful and I hope to have a batch almost done when we have our big Christmas gathering–lovely smells and a take home gift for all!. Thanks Karen!

So I heard this joke recently and, simply because this post is about a moose and because you’re Canadian, I thought you might like it.
This Scottish guy goes on a skiing trip to Canada. After a hard day on the slopes, he retires to a bar at the bottom of the mountain.
After about five or six whiskies, he looks up and notices a stuffed animal on the wall with antlers, so he says to the barman, “what the hell is that?”
The barman says, “it’s a moose.” The Scottish chap says, “Damn! How big are the cats?”

These are fantastic and really easy to make with the kids. One recipe I found suggested adding a few tablespoons of white glue to the mix, to help them “keep”, though I’m not sure how worthwhile that is.

I tried to convince the girls to use the snowflake cookie cutters.
We now have cinnamon scented Yodas, Darth Vadars, and R2D2s instead.

As to the question of lasting stink – good news! If you wrap these up carefully and store them away with your other Christmas keepers, you will be greeted with a most amazing smell when you open that box or bin next year. I have some that I made with my kids about 6 years ago, and they have only just now stopped smelling wonderful. We did gingerbread men, though, not moose, more’s the pity.

I doh know if its worst that you could smell a fart or you can’t? Anyway…I like these ornaments that are smellable. I have never really used that word before. O well…I hope your holidays so far are jolly and merry…and fart-less-ish.

Thanks for the inspiration. Although I don’t have sinusitis (I had a really horrible one last year, although I did not lose taste) I can no longer smell my Christmas tree. No wonder, it was probably harvested in mid November (I purchased it Dec 1st) and by now it’s shedding its needles in copious quantities. If I finish my translation with some time to spare, I will get applesauce and glitter tonight.

moose poops! Here’s something I’d love for you to bring up on your site – right now I’m in day 3 of flu? bad-ass cold? and can smell absolutely NOTHING. On top of that my nose is a faucet, and my body aches so badly, my hair hurts. I have HBP so can’t take regular OTC meds. Would love to get some tips and recipes for home made illness remedies that really work and work fast!

I *tried* making these tonight. Total FAIL. How is that possible? Well, my oven runs 50 degrees hoter than whatever setting you put it on and 200 is the lowest setting which means my oven is really 250 degrees, DO NOT think that you can make these if your oven is 50 degrees off. You can’t. And since I still can’t smell, they didn’t just burn, they burned for 2 1/2 hours. Noses are important, even if they do smell farts sometimes.

Love your chalkboard artwork, too….I made the ornaments with my kids many years ago and kept them for a few years….doubt if the smell lasted tho. Also, same thing with me after a bout with sinus…no taste…many years ago…don’t have it back to this day…and it is awful when cooking. Funny thing…or not…hubby can’t smell…..we make a weird couple! LOL. I tell myself how good stuff tastes anyway so no lost weight:( And the moose poop made me laugh!